Talk:Editing Guidelines
Name format We probably should agree to a common format for the code name and real name at the start of most character pages. Some variation particularly for the longer articles is fine, but I think at least the stubs should be more unified than they currently are, with several rivaling standard formats. I'm against first name "codename" family name because it doesn't work well for people who have middle names, or for overly long codenames ( Larry "The Man Called Vengeance" Damone?), and it doesn't make clear that the "" part is the official codename and not a nickname. Likewise name aka codename, even if that's used quite a bit in the stories. For overload the aka would definitely be Glich and not Overload, because no one calls him that, and similarly Belle for Beltane (not the no one calls her that part), Captain Canada for Cerebrex, Abra for Abracadabra and so on. I'm fine with the codename (real name) Xalt has been using, and of course the real name, code name codename, is ... I have been using myself (even with codename written in one word like everyone else here seems to prefer). Addiab 10:56, May 8, 2010 (UTC) I'm not sure when I switched to using the codename (name) format, but I find I like it because it lets me put other stuff in the parenthesis, like the entry for Delta Spike, where I put "formerly Kendall". It might work better for the timeline as well.XaltatunOfAcheron 12:41, May 8, 2010 (UTC) OK, let me try formalizing this a bit. We have the following systems commonly used: #'Codename' (Full Name, aka "Nickname", formerly/born Old Name) #'Full Name', codename Codename, a.k.a. "Nickname", formerly/born Old Name #'Full "codename" Name' a.k.a. "nickname", formerly/born Old Name #'Full "nickname" Name' codename Codename, formerly/born Old Name And some lesser variations on above Like Addiab, I dislike options #3 and #4 because they are confusing. I'm partial to format #2, but I'm hardly objective -- that's the one I have been using. I'm no fan of parentheses -- I would prefer to leave them out of the main standard and reserve them for the complicated cases. Standardizing on typeface formatting (as opposed to paragraph formatting) cold be helpful to make things clearer. As a first iteration towards a standard, I would suggest: *Both codenames and full names, at least, in boldface, with no quotes. That's similar to the common practice in the Wikipedia, and should be familiar to most users. *Nicknames in quotes *Former names I'm not sure. I think they should be highlighted in some way, but perhaps not with bold -- perhaps italics? Let me try some variations on the theme... *'Eldritch' (Caitlin Bardue, born Erik Mahren a.k.a Hijacker) *'Kendall Forbes', codename Beltane a.k.a. "Belle" *'Cerebrex' a.k.a. "Captain Canada!" *'Jade Sinclair', codename Generator (born Jared Reilley) *'Tisiphone' (Alexis Alberta Waldner, formerly Fireball) Hmmm... I'm not really liking those italics. I like the bold for codenames, even former codenames, though. But I think the full name should be highlighted too. Thoughts? --Sir Lee 17:36, May 8, 2010 (UTC)